Mother's torment: 'Please find my boy'.
TEENAGE friends and family of missing Downham student Jonathon "Jonno" Barber yesterday joined in a desperate riverside search for him as hopes faded that he might still be alive.
More than 100 volunteers joined in searches alongside the River Great Ouse between Salters Lode and Magdalen bridge.
Jonathon (18) had been at a party in Salters Lode on Friday night and vanished from a five-strong group walking back to Downham, along the river bank, at about 3am on Saturday.
Yesterday, Inspector Mick Bates, who was coordinating the search from Downham Police Station, said: "As the days go by it's looking pretty grim.
"We are going on through the daylight hours today, but it's my view that if we are not successful today we will probably have to wind it down because all the indications are that he has gone in the river and if it doesn't give him back we are going to struggle."
Jonathan's mother, Carolyn Barber (44), of Broadlands, Downham, said: "I am trying not to think the worst and just hoping and praying that he will be found all right."
Insp Bates said Jonathon appeared to have gone ahead while others with him tended to one of their number who was not feeling well. When they looked again, he had disappeared.
"They were trying to shout to each other but couldn't hear themselves above the wind and it was a really confused situation, really black and bleak out there," the inspector said.
When Jonathan was reported missing to police that morning, an officer walked the stretch of bank and a search-and-rescue helicopter, with equipment capable of detecting bodies in the North Sea, was brought in to sweep along the river.
"But we only found one of his training shoes late on Saturday afternoon near the party location at Salters Lode," he said.
Teams of coastguards, from Sutton Bridge and Hunstanton, also joined the search. They estimated that if he had gone in the water, he would not have been carried any further than St Germans with the tide, he added.
Police officers, including some with dogs, Police Community Support Officers and volunteer lowland search-and-rescue teams from Norfolk and Cambridgeshire also took part in searches over the weekend and yesterday.
"We are walking the river banks in case we can see him where the high tides have left him, and to make sure that he hasn't stumbled down a bank after injuring himself and is incapable of moving," Inspector Bates explained.
"That river is really treacherous and we have got to be careful that nobody else gets hurt while searching for him," he said.
Yesterday, a blue beanie hat Jonathon had been wearing was found close to where his trainer was recovered on Saturday afternoon.
Police divers went into the river yesterday afternoon, near Denver Sluice, where the hat and trainer were found. They were expected to be searching until daylight faded and were to resume this morning.
Jonathon is described as white, about 5ft 7in tall, of slim build, with collar-length dark hair. He also has a very short ginger beard.
He was wearing blue jeans and a green hooded top that had an orange "Airwalk" marking on it when he went missing.
Four floral tributes from friends appeared on the bridge over the River Great Ouse at Downham West.
Mrs Barber, a service manager for a Wisbech-based young carers' project, said: "I have been emailing friends and writing down everything that has been happening and that goes through my mind."
She said Jonathon's cousin Owen Dixon (19) was the last person to see him.
Jonathon asked Owen if he had a lighter for his cigarette then, as Owen looked around, he could not see him.
"He just vanished. They were only about 200 yards away from Salters Lode bridge," she said.
"They have walked that route many, many times in the past, both going out and coming back, because it is safer than the road, which is twisty and turny.
"They had some drink but they were all fit enough to walk back and they weren't staggering. They were just happy."
She praised yesterday's massive turnout of his friends to join in the search. Some of them had travelled from Manchester and Northamptonshire to take part.
Jonathon's father, Nick, said: "I am overwhelmed by the level of support from people turning out today. I also want to give credit to the police. They have done a fantastic job here in coordinating everything."
Jonathon's grandmother Mrs Pauline Carter was at Mrs Barber's home in Broadlands, Downham, manning the telephone and making sandwiches.
Volunteers have been manning a soup kitchen, providing food and refreshment for searchers, at the former Thurlow Nunn Standen site near the river at Downham.
Matthew Tucker-Jones (21), of Bridge Street, Downham, went searching for Jonathon along the river bank between 5am and 6am on Saturday.
He said: "It was the strongest wind I have ever felt – it was unbelievably strong. There were four of us looking for him and we linked arms but we could barely hear each other talking, so I could see how something could have happened suddenly to him."
Matthew said he had been at the party in Salters Lode when Jonathon's cousins, Owen and Chris Dixon, came back asking if anyone had seen him because he had disappeared from the group walking home.
Jonathon moved to Downham six years ago and went to Downham High School and sixth form before going to the University of Stafford to study animatronics (creation of robots) and computer-generated imagery, providing special effects for computer games.
His mother said he got to know a lot of young people in the area and went to the party to see them again after returning to Downham for Mother's Day.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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